Draft:Stanko Kristl

Stanko Kristl, Slovenian architect,urban planner, and designer * 29 January 1922, Ljutomer, † 18 January 2024.

During the Second World War he was forcibly mobilized and was seriously wounded, on the Russian front. He completed his secondary education in 1945 in Maribor and later graduated from the Department of Architecture of the Technical University of Ljubljana under the mentorship of Prof. Edvard Ravnikar in 1954.. After graduation, he became his assistant from 1954 to 1959.

He has worked as a head planner for the construction of the Ljubljana University Clinic campus. He has designed numerous projects and plans for hospitals in Slovenia and abroad.

In 1980, he was appointed Associate Professor in the field of social and residential construction at the Faculty of Architecture in Ljubljana. He earned a PhD in 1981 and was elected full professor in 1986. He also lectured at the Department of Landscape Architecture at the Faculty of Biotechnology of the University of Ljubljana. He was elected Associate Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts member in 2005 and full Member in 2011.

He was awarded the Prešeren Award, the highest recognition in the Republic of Slovenia for achievements in the field of artistic creation for the architectural design of commercial and apartment buildings on Šeleška Street in Velenje in 1964 and Dr.France Preseren Primary School in Kranj in 1970. In December 2020, the University of Ljubljana, on the proposal of the Faculty of Architecture, awarded him the title of Emeritus Professor. He was also an honorary citizen of Ljubljana.

During his lifetime, he planned and constructed around 61 urban and architectural projects, some are already protected as national monuments and rewarded with national awards and recognitions: a block of flats on Prijateljeva Street in Prule, Ljubljana, atrium houses at Boršetova Street in Ljubljana, commercial and apartment budiling on Šeleška street in Velenje, Dr.France Preseren Primary School in Kranj, kindergarten Mladi rod in Črtomirova Street in Ljubljana, and DTS facilities of the Ljubljana University Medical Centre. His work was part of the exhibition "Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980" at MOMA from Jul 15, 2018 to Jan 13, 2019.

Kristl's work is one of the highlights of late modernism in Slovenia (along with Milan Mihelič, Savin Sever, Janez Lajovic and Miloš Bonča), distinguished by carefully considered floor plans, building envelopes with well-considered artistic elements and the functionality of buildings, ranging from kindergartens to apartment blocks. This is particularly pronounced in public buildings, especially hospitals. He continued to complete and improve the Ljubljana University Medical Centre on the occasion of his centenary.

The opus of his work was exhibited at the Museum of Architecture and Design in 2017. The main theme of the exhibition was the man and his experience of space. The theme that has characterized the research and design approach of architect Stanko Kristl. In his architectural projects, numerous articles, and research, he constantly emphasized the necessity of incorporating sociology and psychology in the design of space.

Stanko Kristl had a long and fruitful professional career, during which he significantly defined the Slovenian architectural heritage of the 20th century and made a valuable contribution to the experimental architecture of post-war Europe with his self-determination and relevance.